Fourth of July Brewing Celebration

Beer Luvvas,

Happy Birthday America! There are few things that are more American than sitting around in a stained 'wife-beater', drinking macroswill, and trying to light your neighbor's yard on fire while also hitting on his/her spouse.

Fortunately, Freebird and I did not encounter such events during our 4th of July plans yesterday. What we did experience was a couple great "new to me" beers from a couple great American brewers: Victory and Lagunitas.

I picked up a bomber of Victory Hop Wallop as the All American Impulse Buy on my last trip to Belmont Station. There it was; sitting right in front of the register line and I knew that I needed some brew for our friend's 4th of July picnic... I'd like to perform a Head-2-Head comparison with Hop Devil because my initial thoughts were that there wasn't a huge amount of additional hops present in Hop Wallop...but I cannot be sure. What I can be sure of is that Hop Wallop is yet another excellent offering from Victory Beer!

Last night when Freebird and I left the festivities just before sundown to spend the fireworks portion of the evening with our soon to be shivering schnauzer, we stopped in at our local QFC and picked up a few bombers for the rest of the evening. The only bottle we opened was Lagunitas Lucky 13 - a "Mondo Large Red Ale," as described on the bottle. An like most Lagunitas fare, the descriptor did not fall short. This beer will eventually require a Head-2-Head comparison with Double Mountain IRA and the Dry Hopped St. Rogue Red to determine which brewer brews the best hoppy red quaff.

Needless to say, I hope your 4th of July weekend was festive and full of great American Craft beers.

Prost to America! Land of the Free! Home of the Brave!

Orgnic Blues

Beer Luvvas,

To me, there isn't anything more organic than some good Delta Blues. Now that Deschutes is a sponsor of the Portland Waterfront Blues Festival, you can enjoy a pint or 2 of Green Lakes Organic Amber while you explore the depths of your soul @ the Blues Festival!

Prost to organic blues and beer!

Organic Beer Festival: A Day Later....

Beer Luvvas,

It's now Sunday after the close of the 2009 North American Organic Brewer's Festival, and I'm finally sitting down to look at my notes from yesterday afternoon.

I need new technology for live posting once my friends arrive at these beer festivals because no matter how much I want to share my experiences with the blog reading public, beer drinking remains a social event to be shared real-time, with real-people. Click on a few thousand more ads, and my priorities may change....

I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the Stouts and Porters that were available for tasting.

Bison Chocolate Stout: A part of me wants to not capitalize the chocolate in this stout because the chocolate notes were that faint. Otherwise, it was a very nice, dry stout.

Elliot Bay Organic Coffee Stout: This coffee/oatmeal stout was also very lightly flavored, but with a crisp, dry stout finish. At this point in the afternoon, I was beginning to wonder if the flavors of these beers were muted due to the extra expense of certified organic ingredients. Thoughts?

Lakefront Fuel Cafe: Lakefront's coffee stout was one of the few served from the bottle, but also had the strongest coffee flavor of all that I tasted. It makes me wonder if the flavor of the organic ingredients are somehow more prevalent in the smaller containers?

Oakshire Overcast Espresso Stout: This coffee oatmeal stout (wow - I can't remember the last beer festival where there were more than 2 stouts!), was my favorite of the festival. It's coffee notes were by far the strongest of all that were present.

Unfortunately, Standing Stone Brewing's Oatmeal Stout on Nitro was out by the time I got to the front of the line, and I was unable to give it a go...

Near the end of the day (5pm for me), I found an IPA that became my favorite (and many of my quaffing partners') of the day: Oakshire Watershed IPA. Oakshire's IPA had the strongest citrus notes of all the IPAs I tasted. It's golden color was the deepest, and it's floral aroma was the most distinctive. It was so good compared to the others that I might doubt it's organic authenticity.

I didn't try any of the Organic Sam Smith offerings. Two token tasters for fruit beers was just too much to ask.

One final note for next year, many of the beers were running out before 5pm on Saturday. So come early, drink often and enjoy the MAX ride home!

Prost to the Organic Brewer's Festival! Demonstrating that organic beer can be quite tasty!

North American Organic Beer Festival

Beer Luvvas,

It's a beautiful sunny Saturday in Portland and Freebird and I are experiencing our first North American Organic Beer Fest!

I'll be posting my tastes as they come....

Nelson Paddywhack IPA: 34 IBUs very mellow and floral on the tounge. Mild summer sipper.

Captured By Porches Invasive Species IPA: 38 IBUs with a belgian note.

More to come...

San Diego Gas Lamp Reviews

Beer Luvvas,

I just spent 24 hours in San Diego and I have ont thing to report: 5.50 pints! OUCH!

I hit an irish pub: The Field - D E A D. Dead. And then walked a couple doors down to The Whiskey Girl which reminded me of The Library in Tempe: Frat House, Meat Market with big video screens showing coed on coed action to passers by.

But I was very entertained by the cover band trio who performed in parallel to the videos by the actual artists on the tvs inside.
The fact that the pharma confernece spilled into the bar @ 10pm didn't hurt. Glad it wasn't the Tony Robbins leadership conference who were yelling groupo affirmations @ 8am this morning.

Prost to San Diego! If you like 5.50 pints, there are plenty of condos for sale in the 500k to 2mil range!

Avery Imperial IPA Guest Tap @ Henry's

Beer Luvvas,

Here I sit all alone in Henry's dining room since Freebird and MCO and wife are running late for Hoppy Hour/dinner. But I am too happy about Avery's Majaraja Imperial IPA to be upset about enjoying this quaff sans friends.
The aroma is all citrus and the flavors are bold. If ever there was a signature brew for MCO's hypothetical China Brewpub Double Hoppiness, Majaraja is that brew.
Once my dining partners arrive, I may attempt to convinve them to have a taste off between regular Henry's tap: Pliney the Eldar and the Majaraja. My cup of hopps doth overflow.

Prost to Avery Majaraja!

Alameda Brerwing Double IPA

Beer luvvas,

Freebird and I have a treat this week as MCO and his wife are visiting P-Town from China! Unfortunately HBB is periodically blocked from access in Mainland China (like CNN and other worthy news sources). So MCO has not been able to blg much about the North China beer scene.

Although all he's asked for to date is hops. So maybe there's not much to blg about China's beer scene.

To satisfy the immediate hops need, we met @ Alameda Brewing to enjoy their current special Yellow Wolf Double IPA. I would hope that the near 100 IBUs were enough to qunch some of MCO's immediate thirst.

But we will fill a growler @ Deschutes-Inversion or Cellar Door Vlack IPA-and Bailey's-Bear Republic Racer X or HUB IPA on cask-before returning home for growlers, guac, and Settlers!

Prost to a week in Beervana to quench the IPA drought that is life in Mainland China!

Screen Door: Southern Hospitality

Beer Luvvas,

If you find yourself n Burnside and 20 something, stop into the Screen Door and grab some grits to go with a pint of Double Mountain IPA, Anderson Valley Pale, HUB lager or Dick's Porter!

Prost to good beer and southern comfort food @ the Screen Door!

Beer of the Month Club: Father's Day Codes

Beer Luvvas,

Father's Day is this weekend, and below are the codes for any of the clubs that your father may enjoy for a couple months...

FDAY10 = $10 off any prepaid order of 6+ months
FDAY15 = $15 off any prepaid order of 12 months

Prost to Fathers! Without them, we'd never get to enjoy all the great beer that we have!

Return from Rogue B&B

Beer Luvvas,

Freebird and I have safely returned from our weekend excursion to Rogue's Bed & Beer in historic Newport, OR.

My basic review of the lodging is this: it's a good place to rest your head after a late night drinking. It's a short walk up the stairs from the Bay Blvd. Public House to rooms furnished in 80s themed coast/mountain rustic. Although there were some items that could use some repair (handle to the sliding deck door), the fact that it's an easy stumble upstairs - and quick walks to great local seafood from Mo's to Saffron Salmon to Sharky's - makes it a great place to spend a weekend at the Oregon Coast.

In my last session, I was able to sample their over hopped IPA - Charlie (named after a brewer who doesn't play well with others, and there's enough IBUs in this brew to make it difficult for your taste buds to play with any other beer after Charlie passes your lips). I followed that with Bullfrog's Rye IPA which was sooooo mellow, relatively speaking.

Next up: I had to bring the IBUs back up, so I jumped to the XS Imperial series....Imperial Red, followed by the Imperial IPA. Both well known quantities, and excellent quaffs.

After a short hiatus for dinner (Warrior needed food badly), Freebird and I returned so she could partake of the Imperial Red, and I could enjoy a Shakespeare Stout on Nitro! A few rounds of trivia later (every Saturday night on the Bay), and it was time to call it a night. But not before we purchased a St. Rogue Red Bomber to take up to our room for a nightcap...

Prost to spending the weekend above a pub! Everyone should do it at least once!